


Bits and Pieces

by semperama



Series: Tumblr Ficlets - Pinto [6]
Category: Star Trek RPF
Genre: First Kiss, M/M, Sharing Clothes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-25
Updated: 2016-03-25
Packaged: 2018-11-23 17:03:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11406738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/semperama/pseuds/semperama
Summary: It starts with a pair of shoes.





	Bits and Pieces

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this in response to a prompt about how Zach and Chris seem to have a lot of clothing that looks suspiciously similar.

It starts with a pair of shoes.

“Hey, can I wear these out tonight?” Zach asks, dangling them from two fingers. Chris stops rifling through his sock drawer and turns to look at him.

“I’m sorry, what was that?” He cups his hand to his ear and raises his eyebrows. “Did I just hear a tacit endorsement of one of my clothing choices?”

Zach rolls his eyes and decides to take that as a yes. He sits down on the edge of Chris’s bed and starts shoving his feet into the sneakers. “I will concede that once in a blue moon, you manage to stumble across something that isn’t completely hideous. You know what they say about stopped clocks.”

“Wow,” Chris says. “I’m letting you borrow my shoes and you are still an asshole.”

Zach grins, stands up, and rocks back on his heels, lifts up on his toes, paces a small circle to check how the shoes feel on his feet. They feel good. They look good too. He’s going to have to write down the brand so he can buy his own pair when he gets home.

Except later on, the shoes somehow find their way into his suitcase instead. When he gets back to New York and unpacks, he tries to convince himself it was an accident, but it’s no accident that he doesn’t call Chris and fess up. Two weeks later, when Chris calls him, he mentions that he hasn’t seen those shoes since Zach was there, and Zach plays dumb.

“I guess I’ll just have to buy a new pair,” Chris says. Zach can hear his shrug through the phone.

The second time it happens, they are in Park City for Sundance, and it’s a coat. Zach’s shivering as they walk back to the hotel, his hunched shoulders doing nothing to keep out the cold. Meanwhile, Chris looks snug as a bug in a rug. His cheeks are bright pink, but he’s smiling; no, he’s laughing, laughing at Zach.

“Here, take this,” Chris says, sliding the coat off his shoulders and then draping it over Zach’s. “You’d think a New Yorker would know how to dress for the cold.”

“I thought I was better acclimated by now,” Zach grumbles, drawing the coat closer around him. It’s warm, preheated by Chris’s body. It smells like him too. Zach almost shoves his face into it to get a better whiff.

The night, Chris goes back to his hotel room and leaves the coat behind, and Zach has a flight to catch, so he doesn’t have time to take it back. When he lands in New York, he has a text from Chris: _Hey, man, do you have my coat?_

_nah dude sorry. check at the front desk. i probably left it in the room._

Chris ends up buying a replacement for that one too.

It keeps happening after that—a jacket here, a scarf there. A beanie. A tie. Some things Chris never seems to miss. Sometimes he asks Zach if he’s seen them, then ends up buying a replacement for himself. Zach always feels a little guilty about it, but it’s an addiction now. He opens his closet and sees all these bits and pieces of Chris, and it feels good.

But it figures it couldn’t last forever. Eventually Chris comes for a visit, and Zach gets caught.

“Hey, can I borrow a hat?” Chris asks, and then he heads for the closet before Zach has a chance to stop him. When he comes out again, a suede jacket dangles from one of his hands and a black scarf from the other.

“Zach?” he asks. He doesn’t look mad. In fact, he’s smiling a knowing smile. “Want to explain this?”

“Uhh…not really?” Zach rubs the back of his neck and looks away, realizing for the first time that he doesn’t really have an explanation.

“Maybe I’m not quite the fashion disaster you’ve been saying I am?” Chris hedges. But no, that’s not it. Zach has a God-awful beanie of his that he hasn’t even worn. Not everything was stolen for its aesthetic value. All of it was stolen because it belonged to _Chris_.

Zach didn’t realize that Chris set the clothes down or that he was moving closer until he’s standing right in front of Zach and taking his face in his hands. “You know,” he says, “if you wanted something to remember me by, you could have just asked.”

“I want a lot of somethings to remember you by,” Zach murmurs, making himself meet Chris’s eyes.

“Oh yeah? How’s this?” Chris asks as he’s leaning in. And for all the things Zach has stolen from Chris, he feels it’s only fair to let Chris steal a kiss in return.


End file.
